Simulated Cognitive Leadership Challenges for Professional Forums

Simulated leadership challenges are particularly effective in generating the discussion and interpersonal connections that are the heart of the Army Professional Forum (APF) and the source of its impact. Because asynchronous discussion on immediately relevant topics is critical to forum impact, efforts to enhance simulated leadership challenges must have knowledge sharing and professional conversation as their focus. To develop advanced simulated leadership challenges that enhance APF impact, CPResearch proposes to apply multi-media and computer-animated content presentation formats to traditional situational-judgment testing techniques. The Phase I effort will result in two simulated leadership challenges (one multi-media, one computer animated), which will be used to determine the feasibility of developing a Phase II library of ten advanced simulated leadership challenges. CPResearch further proposes to use the research results from designing the simulated leadership challenges as the basis for developing a Web-based tacit-knowledge vignette generator for rapidly generating text-based and multi-media leadership challenges. The Phase I effort will produce a prototype vignette generator that will be used to assesses the feasibility of developing a full-scale capability in Phase II. CPResearch will conduct this research-and-development effort in collaboration with subcontractor Auteur Media and two consultants experienced in Army leadership instruction and technology-enabled knowledge sharing.